February 12, 2004
So annoying . . but they brring in the money
Gina Davidson writing for the Edinburgh Evening News thinks ringtones are annoying but recognizes that they are BIG business. Her article is one of the most thorough I've ever read, filled with facts and figures. A must read. Excerpts:
Some numbers:
- Last year £65 million worth of singles were sold in the UK, compared to £75m in ringtones for mobile phones - that's up from £40m in 2002. And this year's growth of about 60 per cent is expected to continue in 2004, creating a £100m industry.
- The European ringtone market alone is worth an estimated 1 billionn euros annually and growing.
- If further proof were needed, Woolworths has created a top-10 chart for ringtones, displaying it alongside the singles chart in the hope that customers will buy the single and the ringtone at the same time".
Where to downloade ringtones:
- At one time ringtones could only be downloaded from the internet. Now all you have to do is dial a number advertised in magazines, newspapers or on television and the ringtone is sent to the buyer's handset in the form of a text message at a cost of between £1 and £3.50.
- BT has also made it easier to buy them through its public internet kiosks, which offer more than 4000 ringtones, including some 2000 polyphonic tones, starting at £2 each. Once at a kiosk, consumers can use the touch screen to select, buy and download the items they want. They can pay by inserting cash directly into the machine or with a credit card, text or by calling a premium rate phone number.
Why are they so popular?
- The popularity of ringtones has been further increased by record companies, which now add downloadable ringtones to some of their releases. A few labels have even released the ringtone version of a single before the CD, such as Mandy by Westlife.
- Another reason for increased demand is the fact that the variety of ringtones has increased by about 1000 per cent in the past year. As well as pop, classical, jazz, national anthems, and film and TV theme tunes, there are also animal noises made available by the British Library, courtesy of its vast sound archive, which include colobus monkey calls, a desert cobra attack, loons yodelling and cattle lowing.
- The quality of sound has also vastly improved. Many phones are now polyphonic, capable of playing multiple tracks, rather than a series of single notes. An increasing number have the capacity to play CD-quality "true tones".
Read on to find out about Alexander Amosu's ringtone success story.
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